Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Left hanging

What do you feel when you read this?
The first thought i had was better late than never, next thought was maybe capital punishment is not such a bad thing (to make my stand clear - i am still unclear on what i feel about capital punishment, i am not vehemently for it, especially given our flawed justice system where an error / bribe may cost someone their life, but i do believe some crimes fall under the rarest of rare category, where death must be awarded, with unfettered access to higher court appeals and mercy petitions. Well, i guess that means i am not against capital punishment).
Then i read the headline again, what is the point of telling the public that we are hanging the terrorist on his birthday?
What is this disgusting satisfaction that we are supposed to get for hanging a man on his birthday. It obviously is completely coincidental, but it could very well have been a fact kept out of the headline. Unless you are a person directly affected by the blast, why would you feel glad over hanging somebody on their birthday. I doubt the satisfaction derived even if you were a victim of the attack. I think after 22 years, we should be ashamed that it took so long to deliver justice to the victims and instead of making a big show of such a big failure on the part of our justice system, the hanging should quietly take place and announce in the paper the next day, just like Ajmal Kasab.Justice delayed is justice denied.
The 1993 bomb blasts were the first 1st serial bombings that we had ever witnessed, the first time RDX was used for terrorist operations after WWII ( Source). If India had taken a tough and aggressive stance then, fast tracking the case through the courts, sentencing and carrying out those sentences with the speed of light, maybe we could have avoided a few of the later serial bombings.
Obviously, even after setting up a special court under TADA, the case took 10 years to complete - in September 2003.
The special court started handing out sentences in 2006 and now in 2015 comes the news of the hanging.
The main accused are still absconding.
Maybe in 20 years time we will catch them and in another 20 years we will sentence them to die on their birthdays. By then we will have judges who would have been born after the attacks and would be incapable of comprehending the terror and destruction the attacks left in their wake.
And victims who died without ever seeing the perpetrators brought to justice.